4.50 



LESUEUR LEUCADIA. 



vigour, which sometimes rentiers his pictures too 

 uniform, and occasionally they have too much orna- 

 ment. That Lesueur should have reached so great 

 excellence, is the more remarkable, as he had never 

 out of France, hardly evrn mil of Paris, and 

 bad consequently forme*! himself after the few models 

 of the ancient an ami the Italian school to be found 

 there. He had studied Raphael chiefly through the 

 engravings of Mark Antony. Lesueur, from his 

 education, may be considered as the true representa- 

 tive of the French school ; for Poussin, who was a 

 superior artist, belongs more to the Italians than to 

 the French. His mild and ingenuous character made 

 him generally esteemed, although the jealousy of his 

 competitor Lebrun, who tyrannized over the taste and 

 opinions of the day, prevented him from enjoying the 

 reputation which was justly due him in his lifetime. 



LESUEUR, JEAN BAPTISTE, a musical composer, 

 a descendant of the great painter Lesueur, born in 

 I 763, was placed in the musical school of the cathe- 

 dral of Amiens, and, after completing his musical 

 studies, was made director of music in the cathedrals 

 at Seez and Dijon, and, in 1784, in the church of the 

 Innocents, at Paris. In 1786, in opposition to several 

 candidates, he received the place of master in the 

 cathedral of Paris, and his elevated and impressive 

 compositions, no less than the excellent manner in 

 which he led the orchestra, made him a universal 

 favourite. His own inclinations, and the advice of 

 Sacchini, induced him to compose for the theatre. 

 Telemachus was his first opera, which was brought 

 forward with great success in the theatre Feydeau. 

 In 1788, Lesueur resigned his place at Notre-Dame, 

 that he might devote his time to theatrical music, and 

 lived, till 1792, with his friend and patron Bochard 

 de Champagny, in whose house he applied himself so 

 laboriously, that his host, anxious for his health, 

 would not allow him lights for more than half the 

 night. Lesueur was at that time engaged in writing 

 his opera La Cavcrne : one night, his light went out, 

 and, unable to endure any interruption, he lay on the 

 floor before the fire, and continued to write by the 

 feeble light afforded by a few pieces of wood, until 

 he was found in that situation the next morning, by 

 Mr Champagny. After various disappointments, he 

 finally succeeded, in 1793, in introducing this opera 

 on the stage, which met with the most brilliant 

 applause. On Chenier's proposition, he was made 

 professor of music in the national institute, and wrote 

 several pieces of music for festivals, during the time 

 of the republic; was afterwards displaced by intrigue, 

 but again restored by Bonaparte. In 1793, he com- 

 posed Paul et Virginie, the Death of Adam, and the 

 Bards. This last and finest work, in which the com- 

 poser appears to have called up the very spirit of 

 Ossian, delighted Napoleon to such a degree, that he 

 made him chapel-master at the Tuileries, conferred 

 on him the order of the legion of honour, and pre- 

 sented him a gold snuff-box, with the inscription 

 " The emperor of the French to the author of the 

 Bards." Lesueur wrote, in connexion with Cheru- 

 bini, Mehul, Langle, and Rigal, the work published 

 by Catel (1816), Sur les Principes elementaires de 

 Mtuitjue. He also wrote Essai sur la Musique sacree 

 (1787), and Letires et Reponse a Gaillard, sur 

 I' Opera de la Mort d' Adam, et sur plusieurs Points 

 d'Utilite relatifs aux Arts et aux Lettres (1801). 



LETHARGY (lethargus, from x0n, forgetfulness); 

 a heavy and constant sleep, with scarcely any inter- 

 vals of waking. When awakened, the person answers, 

 but, ignorant or forgetful of what he said, imme- 

 diately sinks into the same state of sleep. It is con- 

 sidered as an imperfect apoplexy, and is mostly 

 symptomatic. 



LETHE ; a river of the lower regions, celebrated 



in ancient mythology, whose water had the power of 

 making the souls of the departed, who drank of it, 

 forget all their sufferings on earth. Those spirits, in 

 particular, drank of it, who were destined to return 

 to the upper world in new bodies, in order to forget 

 the pleasures enjoyed in Elysium. 



LETO. Sec Lalona. 



LETTER OF ATTORNEY. See Attorney. 



LETTER OF MART, or of MARQUE; a com- 

 mission granted to the commander of a merchant 

 ship, or privateer, to cruise against and make prizes 

 of the enemy's ships and vessels, either at sea or in 

 their harbours, under pretence of making reprisals 

 for injuries received. The ship so commissioned is 

 also called a letter of mart or marque. 



LETTERS. See Types, and Writing. 



LETTER-WRITING. Among the letters cele- 

 brated in French literature are those of madame de 

 Sevigne, Ninon de Lenclos, Babet, Racine, Voltaire, 

 and the collection of Richelet ; in English literature, 

 the letters of James Howel, Sir William Temple, 

 Addison, Pope, Swift, Bolingbroke, lady Montague, 

 Chesterfield, Gray, and Cowper, are celebrated ; in 

 Italian, those of Manuzio, Ludovico Dolce, cardinal 

 Bembo, Bentivoglio, Bernardo Tasso, those collected 

 by Lud. Dolce, and Annibal Caro, those of Pietro 

 Aretino, Algarotti, and Gasparo Gozzi; in German 

 literature, the letters of Lessing, Winckelmann, 

 Klopstock, Wieland, Gellert, Weisse, Jacobi, Garve, 

 Abbt, Sturz, Gleim, Burger, Lichtenberg, J. von 

 Muller, Mathieson, &c. Bolingbroke made use of 

 the epistolary form for treating philosophical subjects 

 (for instance, the study of history), and Richardson 

 applied it to novels. The Germans also have didac- 

 tic letters by Mendelssohn, Jacobi, Herder, J. von 

 Muller, and J. G. Muller. In the French as well 

 as the Italian literature, letters form a very consider- 

 able branch, and large collections of them exist, 

 among which are the following: Lettres historiques 

 (14 vols., Hague, 16921698, 12mo); Lettres his- 

 toriques et g'alantes par Madame de Noyer (6 vols., 

 Utrecht, 1713, 12mo); Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, 

 ecrites des Missions etrangers (34 parts in 32 vols , 

 Paris, 1717 1776, 12mo; new edition, 26 vols., 

 Paris, 1780 1783, 12mo; also in 26 vols., Toulouse, 

 18101812, 12mo, and an atlas); Nouvelles Lettres 

 edif. (6 vols., Paris, 1819); Lettres serieuses et ba- 

 dines (12 vols., Hague, 1729 1740); Lettres Juives 

 (6 vols., Amsterdam, 1736; new edition, 1741); 

 Lettres caballistiques (6 vols., Hague, 1781); Lettres 

 Chinoises (5 vols., Hague, 1739); Lettres Portugaises 

 (2 vols., Paris, 1796). Among the Italian collec- 

 tions, are Lettere vulgari di diversi nobilissimi Hito- 

 mini et eccellentissimi Ingegni (3 vols., Venice, 15C4, 

 also 1567); Lettere d'Uomini illustrf, chefiorirono nel 

 Principio del Sec. XVII. (Venice, 1744); Lettere 

 Sanesisopra le Belle Arti (3 vols., with engravings, 

 Venice and Rome, 17621786, 4to). 



LETTUCE (lactuca sativa) ; a smooth, herba- 

 ceous, annual plant, containing a milky juice, which 

 has been cultivated from remote antiquity, and is in 

 general use as a salad. The original locality is 

 unknown. The stem grows to the height of about 

 two feet, and bears small pale-yellow flowers ; the 

 inferior leaves are sessile, and undulate on the mar- 

 gin. The young plant only is eaten, as it is narcotic 

 and poisonous when in flower. Twenty species 01 

 lactuca are known, from various parts of the globe. 



LEUCADIA (at present, Santa Maura, 112 square 

 miles, 17,500 inhabitants); an island belonging to the 

 republic of the Ionian Islands, on the western coast 

 of Greece. The southern extremity (on which stood 

 a temple of Apollo), at present cape Ducato, in the 

 vicinity of the capital, Leucas (at present, St Maura), 

 was called by the Greeks the Leucadian Rock. It 



